Retirement Income

The first important financial statement everybody should pay attention to is an income statement. Said another way, your income statement is your budget. It outlines your expenses and your income. 

In order to know what you need, you have to ask yourself the hard questions of what you would like retirement to look like.

• Will you travel? 
• Will you buy an RV? 
• How often will you travel?

These questions among others help to answer the question of how much you will need in retirement income. 

The second most important financial statement is your balance sheet.  Your balance sheet is a snapshot of your assets and liabilities. 

From these two items, you know your financial net worth. This will help to determine if you have enough to retire. 

• Will your assets provide the amount of income you want?
•  Do you need to save more? 
• Can you retire today? 
• Can you retire three years from now? 

Your balance sheet will help in shaping the necessary items in your financial plan. 

Not all investment strategies and investments are created equally. Some have guarantees, some are safer, and some are purely speculative. 

It is important to know the pros and cons to the different choices since these are the tools that will be used to get you the income you want for retirement income. 

After understanding the different options available, you can start the process of eliminating the choices that you will absolutely not consider regardless of potential.

After you know what you want, know what you have, and know the vehicles that can help you along the journey, you can start to build a plan around your income objectives and current situation. 

You will want to take into consideration the different risks such as inflation, principle risk, and healthcare costs. 

Once you have the plan, it will be important to monitor and make adjustments as needed.